Yang family-style (Chinese: 楊氏; pinyin: yángshì) t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan) in its many variations is the most popular and widely practised style in the world today and the second in terms of seniority among the primary five family styles of t'ai chi ch'uan.

History

The Yang family first became involved in the study of t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan) in the early 19th century. The founder of the Yang-style was Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪), aka Yang Fu-k'ui (楊福魁, 1799–1872), who studied under Ch'en Chang-hsing starting in 1820. Yang became a teacher in his own right, and his subsequent expression of t'ai chi ch'uan became known as the Yang-style, and directly led to the development of other three major styles of t'ai chi ch'uan (see below). Yang Lu-ch'an (and some would say the art of t'ai chi ch'uan, in general) came to prominence as a result of his being hired by the Chinese Imperial family to teach t'ai chi ch'uan to the elite Palace Battalion of the Imperial Guards in 1850, a position he held until his death.

Yang Lu-ch'an passed on his art to:

Short forms

Yang Chengfu also developed his own shortened version of the Yang Long Form in order to have it easier to teach to modern students who are busy with modern life. Despite being shortened, Yang Chengfu managed to keep the essentials of the Yang Long form. Correctly taught and practiced, the 108 movement form still retains much of its health and self-defense benefits (the original comprises over 300 movements).

The Chinese government has also commissioned short 16 Forms from each of the five major families recently. Although the 16 Forms have now been taught for some time, the families all presented them as a set to attendees of the First International Tai Chi Chuan Symposium in Nashville, TN in July 2009.

Some notable descendants of Yang Lu-ch'an

Yang Shou-chung

Yang Zhen Duo

Yang family tree

Names denoted by an asterisk are legendary or semilegendary figures in the lineage, which means their involvement in the lineage, while accepted by most of the major schools, is not independently verifiable from known historical records.

Notes

Yang Ch'eng-fu moved to Shanghai in the 1920s, teaching there until the end of his life. His descendants are still teaching in schools associated with their family internationally. Tung Ying-chieh (Dong Yingjie, 董英杰, 1898–1961), Ch'en Wei-ming (Chen Weiming), Fu Zhongwen (Fu Chung-wen, 1903–1994), (李雅轩, 1894–1976), and Cheng Man-ch'ing were famous students of Yang Chengfu. Each of them taught extensively, founding groups teaching T'ai Chi to this day. Cheng Man-ch'ing, perhaps the most famous outside of China, significantly shortened and simplified the traditional forms Yang taught him.